[Moin-user] Clarification of userid & help doc

[George (Skip) VerDuin]

Greetings from snowy Michigan -- May we explore the detail of user
management a bit?  I've searched the past year on this reflector and not
found the subject discussed.

I)
The first paragraph of Help => Admin => User doc on my rev states:
____________________________ <paste from help doc> _____________________
User data is stored in directory data/user in files that have the user
id as filename. The files with the appendix .trail contain a history of
what pages the user visited last.
____________________________ <\paste from help doc> ____________________

At my moin rev=1.5.8(FC-8) this is not true.  If development is to keep
the design I am working with in place, then perhaps the help doc might
be revised to say:
____________________________ <paste to help doc> _____________________
User data is stored in directory data/user in numerically numbered files
that have the user id in the field "name=".  The numeric file name is
generated at user registration time in a format like a.b.c and the
significance of the numbers are:
  a is ---
  b is ---
  c is ---
Therefore at the root user level, all users might be listed by:
  "...# grep ^name= *"
or a particular user may be found by:
  "...# grep userid *"
where userid id the userid of a particular user who is being sought.

The files with the appendix .trail contain a history of what pages the
user visited last.
____________________________ <\paste to help doc> ____________________

In my case, the files with appendix .trail do not exist - perhaps I have
not configured moin to keep these records but this is a subject I have
not explored.

II)
The help doc treats the subject of user removal thus:
____________________________ <paste from help doc> _____________________
You can remove a user by deleting his user file (and other files that
are named with that userid prefix). 

Be aware that if you do that, you will destroy the edit history of that
user. Moin won't be able to show this user in page history, because this
user id will then be unknown. So better disable an account rather than
removing it. After user data is deleted, MoinMoin may still think the
user exists due to the user cache in data/cache/user/name2id. Deleting
this file purges the cache and should fix this problem.
____________________________ <\paste from help doc> ____________________

There is a related aspect of removal that is not treated and perhaps
needs to be reviewed by both development and document groups.  The
"preferences" page presents the "name=" field for editing by the user
even after registration time.  I have not tested this action, but should
I revise my name by editing the name field then I have effectively
caused removal of the former userid per the above description and at the
same moment registered under a new userid.  Without reverting to the
root user and using various find/grep/awk/vi utilities to rebuild the
database it seems to me that allowing a user to change "name=" field is
a potentially disastrous option.  I'd like to be able to rewrite the
help doc, but my knowledge is not deep enough.

III)
Having presented the above two subjects, I expect to use these concepts
soon to "bring consistency" to the user group on the moin wiki under my
care.  This action of mine will require both removal of user file
duplication and [maybe] editing individual user name fields.  I will try
to remedy past randomness with future pre-registration instructions on
selection of "acceptable" user name field data.

The last issue for me is to ask this group if built-in code tied to the
name field having the purpose to make all the required substitutions in
the database which allows a user to edit his name without adverse
consequence is warranted?  If not, I expect awk might become my friend
again...

Warmest regards from here,
George